In 1945, there aren’t many red-light districts rougher than Two-Bit Street in Ogden, Utah. The city is a major stopover for war-weary troops coming back from WWII. They’re looking for a last fling before returning home, and 25th Street has it all—gambling, prostitution, drugs, and more.

 

For private investigator Lafayette Doyle, Two-Bit Street is home. He thinks he knows it like the back of his hand. But when he takes the case of a missing prostitute, Lafe discovers that the mire of crime, lust, and immorality that greases the tenderloin’s wheels runs deeper than he realizes.

 

When a second prostitute goes missing and a third turns up dead, the cops become desperate. They arrest a man on flimsy circumstantial evidence. A man who had helped Lafe survive when he was a kid living on the street. A man Lafe is certain is innocent. A black man, accused of killing a white woman.